Of new computers, underdogs and women’s hoops

Ah, t’is good to be back “online.” My new computer is here, up and running. There is something alluring about a new computer that is not unlike a new car. Or maybe it has just been too very long since I had a new automobile. Eleven years is a lifetime for not buying a new car, at least for me. Of course, this HP is only my second new computer, laptop, notebook, whatchamacallit. I suppose people have a need for a desktop, and although I have an old desktop in storage, I don’t need it. I just don’t think I need anything smaller than this. I have one of those “flip-open” phones with unlimited text. So far, unlimited text just seems like some other electronic wonder I don’t need.

Well, I’m sure no one wants to hear me ruminating (isn’t that something cows do?) on my new laptop.  How about a minute or two of sports.

But, but, but, the Butler did it

I mentioned awhile back that I didn’t plan to watch any of the Final Four unless some of the lowest seeded teams ended up playing. How about 8 and 11? How low can you go? The semi-final between Butler and Virginia Commonwealth was a battle of the midgets but a great game nonetheless. I will watch Butler play UConn for the final, some, tonight. I really hope Butler wins but I won’t jump from any of the high bridges in Southeast Texas if they don’t.

As much as I have been into sports talk radio lately — and believe me I really don’t listen to it very much while in between field work — it gets old hearing constant cheering for Connecticut by most of the sports talk people. As I have mentioned before, the sporta talk folks like the best teams, I get that. They want to win when they put up dollars on sports bets. I get that. They just don’t seem to have any true love when it comes to sports.  The kind of love that makes you root for people like Jim Morris, the small-town West Texas baseball coach turned major-league pitcher, as portrayed by Dennis Quaid in “The Rookie.”

These sports radio shows completely ignore women’s sports. It is as if Title IX was the name of a Scotch single malt whiskey. I probably won’t watch all of the women’s Final Four tomorrow night either but I will tune in and out to see how the Aggie women are doing against Notre Dame. If I could not find any other reason than the several I have to wish Texas A & M well it would be for their coach Gary Blair.

Blair coached eight seasons at my alma mater, Stephen F. Austin, and took the Ladyjacks to six NCAA tournaments. I don’t know about these days but the Ladyjacks were it back in Blair’s day. Why even before Blair they were hot enough to bounce the Stray Cats — when the rockabilly group was popular in the 80s — from a scheduled performance at the SFA coliseum because the Ladyjacks needed to practice for an NCAA playoff. That still sticks in my craw a might. All of that aside, I used to Blair quite often where I worked. We’d say howdy to each other although we weren’t closer than that. Still, Gary Blair impressed me as a very likable, laid-back guy who just happened to be one of those big names in coaching women’s collegiate basketball. That is even though women’s basketball doesn’t exist in the macho world of sports-talk radio.

Oh well, I only like to listen to sports talk every now and then. It’s certainly not a religion.

Onward and upward.